wandering hillbilly

covers n owe ridgnals

heres what i think about covers of songs that's done been writ n proved.

thays this place in lenoir city (just outside knoxvul) called the crosseyed cricket. thay got em a couple ponds thar filled to the gills with fish, catfish in one, trout n tother. thems some well fed critters, eatin thar daily fill of all the corn n worms n wounded minnas and whatever else it is that fish loves to eat. so corse thays fat and healthy. for a small price, a person kin rent em a pole n some bait and chuck it out into the water n make it boil with fish trying to get caught. in about two minutes tops a body kin have em eight or ten big fat fish. the folks at the cricket'll cut em up n clean em for ye to take home, or ye kin get em to batter em up n cook em for the family to eat right thar with greens n hush puppies n mashed taters n iced tea.

ye get a good meal ever time. but t'aint much of a fishin trip.

since the song is the main ingredient in a good recordin, then it makes sense that doin covers is kindly simlar to fishin at the crosseyed cricket. yer almost bound to please most folks. fact is, ye kin probly get more folks to come out n hear yer band if ye do covers than ifn ye do originals. thats why thays all these cover bands n so few that play thar own songs. but its still a plane fak that doin covers aint the toughest trick innybidy ever tried.

corse its a hole nuther thang if a person is doin sumpin new to a song, like what jimi hendrix done to dylans 'all along the watchtower' or what the who done to eddie cochrans 'summertime blues' or even what 2 live crew done to roy orbisons 'oh pretty woman' or what earth wind n fire dun to that beatles song "got to get you into my life." thay made em thar own n made em new somehow. fer me that rates higher than doin em the exact same way as the owe ridgnal, though ifn it's a cover band ye want, thats kindly what ye gotta do.

dont get me wrong, covers is as good as thay is but thay jest aint as much of a stretch as doin owe ridgnals. ifn yer doin covers in a new way (interpretated, as thay say) that rates better cause thays a bigger risk involved. folks dont like change all that much n it takes a while till thay get used to sumthin old bein new all a sudden.

n ifn folks cant hardly warm up to new interpretayshuns of old songs ye kin magine how tiresome thay kin be bout owe ridgnals. speshly live. on tother hand ifn nobidy does owe ridgnals then thay aint no new music no way.

thays folks brave a nuff to try thar hand at bein owe ridgnal, n amung the bestns is knoxvuls own todd steed. hes dun writ a passle of new songs on a album bout k-town callt 'knoxville tells' n thays rite good. sum of my faverts are 'peyton manning shirt' n 'north knoxville' n 'the sounds of this town' tho i lack lots of otherns he dun writ. ifn ye wont one of his cds ye kin git it at disgraceland. or ye cud by em all on a counta he rites good musik n fack is, tiz as good as a campin trip meal, witch mayhap i need to finish the splainayshun of that.

thays this river up in morgan county tennessee called the obed. its way on up in the mountains near catoosa. ye cant get thar by car. i mean ye take a car n drive till the road gives out n hike the rest of the way acarryin whatever ye need. taint fer the faint harted n its just a few folks ever gits up in thar. the fishin kin be ruff to but ifn ye spend a nuff time at it ye get to whar ye know how to wade the river n what bait to use n whar to drop it n ye kin do right well. ye dont catch nearly the fish ye get at crosseyed cricket. the fish ye do catch ye got to clean. n ifn yer gonna eat, ye gotta build a fire n ye had to dun lugged yer skillet with ye n sum crisco n sum corn meel n all in all tiz a fair bit of wurk.

i member a time we had three days of rain. run plum outta food cept some taters n caught no fish. last day out the sun come up in sted a clouds n our luck got better. we caught us a stringer full a redeye n smallmouth bass n kilt em n cleaned em n rolled em in corn meal n fried em in crisco in our cast iron skillet. that thar meals a sermon on why ye fish in the first place.

n im here to i tell ye the memry of that one meals like a good hook in a owe ridgnal song that ye cant get outta yer mind.